any moment now we expect to hear from president obama on the 11th hour fiscal cliff talks that he had this afternoon with the congressional leaders. we're joined now about nbc's kristin welker who is on the north lawn of the white house to give us a sense of where we think the talks are at. earlier today we just heard from senate leader mitch mcconnell's office saying he hopes that senate leaders can make recommendations on the fiscal cliff by sunday. kristin, i just want to ask you while we're waiting for the president to come out here, do you get a sense of where the white house is feeling these talks are going? >> reporter: according to a source close to the talks, president obama thought the conversation was constructive this afternoon. he apparently reiterated the plan that he basically mapped out last friday, which would extend the bush era tax cuts for those making $250,000 or less, extend unemployment insurance as well as the estate tax, and i am told that those are two of the sticking points, the estate tax as well as that $250,000 figure. so that's really where the problem l